The impact of employee training and development on tacit knowledge transfer and the mediating role of trust

Abstract

This paper focuses on employees' training and development as a significant factor facilitating knowledge transfer. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of employee training and development on tacit knowledge transfer mediated via interpersonal trust. The target population of this study are employees from the telecommunications sector (n = 175). Mediation analyses were conducted, the multiplied regression method and simple mediation model with bootstrapping were applied to analyse the data according to mediation analysis. Cronbach alpha and McDonald's omega are used to verify data reliability. This paper finds that training and development influences tacit knowledge transfer and interpersonal trust mediates this relationship. The results showed that training and development has a positive and significant relationship with tacit knowledge transfer, mediated via interpersonal trust. These findings supported the importance of competency development and employee training as a facilitating condition for effective tacit knowledge dissemination on the basis of mutual trust.